[Correspondence] Premature mortality in patients with epilepsy

We commend Seena Fazel and colleagues on their study highlighting the risk of premature death in people with epilepsy and the role of psychiatric comorbidity in increasing this mortality. Although the observed odds ratio for premature mortality was similar to that in a previous study using similar methods, we wonder to what extent the mortality estimates were inflated by inclusion of status epilepticus in the epilepsy cohort. In most cases, status epilepticus is a symptom of an acute brain insult (ie, stroke, anoxia) and does not fulfil criteria for epilepsy.

Source: LANCET - February 8, 2014 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Torbjörn Tomson, Dale C Hesdorffer Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research